12/47

I was honored to see this excellent film at the AFI Film Festival

Narrative

During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting team is forced to report on the Israeli athletes’ hostage crisis. The film takes place in the ABC control room of the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

in their roles

It realistically depicts the routine aspects of operating a control room during an event and of course the tragic events of the Black September attacks on Israeli athletes. In the control room are ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), first producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), vice president of Olympic coverage Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) and German interpreter Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), all they are excellent.

The realism is enhanced by the use of archival footage from Jim McKay’s account of the tragedy

The film also shows exactly how cutting-edge technology at the time seems hilariously primitive today (such as giant VTR machines, competition for satellite space, manually inputted graphics, etc.). But the most important aspect of any thriller is Tim Fehlbaum’s writing and direction, which keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the film.

However, this complaint doesn’t stop me from highly recommending this excellent film – it’s a must see!

My only minor gripe is the casting of Benjamin Walker as Peter Jennings – he doesn’t seem quite right to play the handsome, slick anchorman I remember (I probably would have cut his character and just relied on the tape of Jennings talking about the Olympics. village) .